AC Milan offer Arsenal £4million for William Gallas

Italian giants AC Milan are offering bad boy William Gallas a £4million escape route out of his Arsenal hell.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger would be ready to offload him this month - as long as he can get a replacement.

Juventus are also on standby but AC Milan have come in because they are desperate for a new defender as veteran centre-half Alessandro Nesta has been plagued by injuries this season.

Gallas is aware of the Italian interest and has admitted he nearly joined AC Milan in the past and playing in Serie A appeals to him.

It has left Wenger with a major dilemma over the 31-year-old who is still being given the cold shoulder over his outspoken attack on his team-mates this season which has torn the dressing room apart.

Wenger has publicly insisted Gallas still has a future at the club despite stripping him of the captaincy following his outburst.

But privately he has never forgiven him and has rarely spoken to him in the past six weeks apart from giving him instructions with the rest of the team.

Wenger is renowned for cooling his relationships with players after fall-outs just as he did with former Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann.

Several senior players have not forgiven Gallas who has also had a long-running feud with Kolo Toure.

That may tempt Wenger into selling Gallas whose troublesome reputation from his Chelsea days has overshadowed his Arsenal career since he joined the Gunners in 2006.

He has struggled to recapture his best form at Arsenal, and Wenger may let him go this month as the French World Cup winner will definitely want to leave next summer.

But Wenger will want a ready-made replacement, especially as Arsenal's Swiss centre-half Philippe Senderos is on loan at AC Milan and they want to give him a year in Italy to rebuild his career and confidence.

Wenger also faces a fight to keep defender Toure whose fall-out with Gallas is one of the reasons he wants to leave as well as being marginalised and losing his place in the past few months.

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